OPHELIA AFTER ALL

It’s the end of senior year, and Ophelia Rojas is overwhelmed by the many changes charging through her life.

Ophelia—17, hopeless romantic, fittingly flower-obsessed, Cuban and White—knows that the future is coming on fast. Soon she’ll graduate and start college, moving away from parents she actually gets along with, best friends she shares everything with, and even her beloved rose garden. With so much of her life in flux, she wishes some routines would stay intact. Then Talia—Black and Puerto Rican, quietly intelligent—starts occupying all her thoughts, and she’s not sure what that means. The novel is rich in secondary characters, all of whom learn and struggle together in a messy web of teenage friendships. There’s Agatha (Black, plus-sized fashionista), on her way to design school and determined to succeed; Lindsay (White, popular as all get out), juggling the expectations of two lovestruck boys and an entire presumptuous world; Sammie (Pakistani American and Muslim, jester and boy next door), whose emotions are fast outgrowing his usual devil-may-care attitude; and Wesley (Korean American) and Zaquariah (Black), both artists navigating their own growing pains. Marie writes Ophelia and her friends through the hurdles and heartaches of senior spring with charm and insight, giving each character complexity and their varied cultural experiences the space, consideration, and depth they deserve.

A feel-good and effortlessly inclusive coming-of-age story that deftly captures the aching tension of queer adolescence.